Posted: October 2, 2009

As noted in a previous column, one trait that can hold workers back from clearing out their office clutter is perfectionism. But the damage done by that tendency goes far beyond unwanted stacks of paper. In fact, perfectionism can have such a profound negative impact on productivity, quality of work and morale throughout a company that it deserves its own article.

The aphorism "the perfect is the enemy of the good" summarizes much of the folly of perfectionism. It can be taken a step further to say "the perfect is the enemy of the productive" as well.

In our achievement-oriented business culture, perfectionism can be viewed as a positive, even a goal. Well-intentioned friends advise job seekers to tell interviewers that their biggest weakness is perfectionism. However, the image this advice hopes to create, of a hard worker with high standards who's an asset to the firm, is significantly removed from the reality of perfectionism.

Far from adding to the bottom line, perfectionists often cost their company money, as noted by Dr. Stephen Berglas in the Harvard Business Review. Berglas labeled them some of the worst "time abusers" in his article of the same name, noting that perfectionists not only use more time than is called for in their work, but often run up costs and penalties for missing deadlines in the interest of perfecting their products.

Perfectionism is also marked by inflexibility, and in today's fast-paced markets, flexibility is one of the most important traits for employees to have. When confronted with sudden changes, perfectionists tend to get paralyzed, which takes up additional time that nimble firms don't have.

Paralysis is a fairly common state for perfectionists, whether they're stunned by change or frightened to begin or progress in case they make a mistake. In fact, one of the primary causes of procrastination is perfectionism; if a perfectionist cannot determine the perfect first step, he or she will often find ways to avoid that step in the hopes that inspiration will strike.

And perhaps worst of all, perfectionism is damaging to team dynamics. Perfectionists usually don't keep their high standards to themselves, and their unrealistic expectations and demands of others can harm a team's morale and work flow, sometimes fatally.

Perfectionists themselves are often in a great deal of psychological pain, never able to feel truly satisfied with their efforts and prone to depression. In "Beyond Success and Failure," psychologists Willard and Marguerite Beecher write, "The perfectionist is doomed to starve in the midst of plenty." Treating perfectionism often requires personal therapy and a genuine desire to change, so expecting the office perfectionist to alter their harmful habits is fairly unrealistic.

What managers can do to create an environment that doesn't encourage or reward perfectionist tendencies is to keep in mind that perfection, in general, simply isn't possible. Even in high-stakes fields such as neurosurgery and space travel, people are expected to make mistakes from time to time. This is why professionals work in teams, with the understanding that no one person can do everything right, but by working together, mistakes can be minimized.

Additionally, managers can keep goals and standards for their departments high but achievable, give workers praise and other rewards for meeting those standards and offer encouragement when workers come close to meeting them. Strive to bring out the best, not the most perfect, in your people.

If you suspect you might have a perfectionist streak, you can start to combat those tendencies simply by noticing when your all-or-nothing thinking occurs. From there, try to recognize what you are capable of doing at a certain task or in a certain time and realize that that is most likely quite acceptable. For instance, if you want to write 2,000 words an hour but cannot seem to break 1,500 words an hour, learn to praise and reward yourself for those 1,500 words.

Abandoning perfection as a goal might seem like a questionable practice, but it truly opens the door to genuine excellence. Whether you're a manager or an employee, try to remember: to expect perfection is to expect failure.

Catherine Cantieri's business, Sorted, helps other businesses get organized. Visit the Sorted blog at www.get-sorted.net/.